An NPR Music Best Classical Album Of 2018

After the huge success of her first album for Alpha, Crazy Girl Crazy, which received a Grammy Award, a JUNO Classical Award in Canada, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, FFFF in Télérama and DIAMANT in Opéra Magazine and was BBC Music Magazine CD of the Month, Barbara Hannigan is back with her long-time collaborator, the Dutch pianist and great interpreter of twentieth-century music Reinbert de Leeuw, for a recital exploring the roots of modern music, with the composers who left their mark on the turn of the twentieth century: Hugo Wolf (Mignon Lieder), Arnold Schoenberg (Vier Lieder op.2), Anton Webern (Fünf Lieder nach Gedichten von R. Dehmel), Alexander Zemlinsky (selected lieder), Alma Mahler (Die stille Nacht etc.) and Alban Berg (Sieben frühe Lieder). From what has been called the Second Viennese School, an incredible mix of musicians, painters, writers and other artists frequenting salons and cafés, a completely new musical language was born. Barbara Hannigan is especially fond of this repertory and has long championed it.

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REVIEWS:

Hannigan's tone at the final cry of "Magdalene" is an object lesson in how to color the voice with emotion. She sweetens her sound in Zemlinsky's gorgeous "Empfägnis" (Conception), while in Anton Webern's compact "Am Ufer" (On the Shore), every overripe note is charged with anticipation. With painter-like touches, pianist Reinbert de Leeuw excels in every searching harmony, every lonely pause between notes.

– NPR Music (Tom Huizenga)

The sensuous beauty of Hannigan’s voice as she traces the vocal lines’ leaps and bounds is always pure in tone. De Leeuw’s piano playing, gently crisp and penetrating, casts its own spell, enhanced by the sympathetic recording.

– Sunday Times (UK)